Materia Medica by Kent

PSORINUM

(psor)

Psorinum is closely allied to SULPHUR. The patient dreads to be washed. The skin over the body, especially of the face, looks filthy, though it has been well washed. A dingy, dirty, foul look, as if covered with dirt. Skin rough and uneven, cracks easily, bleeding fissures; it becomes rough and scaly. He cannot wash it clean. The skin of the hands is rough, chaps easily, becomes thick and scaly, easily cracks; breaks out in little scaly eruptions; looks unwashed; he always appears to have dirty hands. Many of the complaints of the skin are worse from bathing and from the warmth of the bed. The skin itches when warm; itches when wearing woolens. Itching when warm in bed; he scratches until the part becomes raw, and then it becomes scabby. When healing takes place there is itching and then he has to scratch. Legs and arms raw and scabby from scratching. Violent itching from the warmth of the bed, even without any eruption. The skin is unhealthy, looks dirty, dingy; studded with capillary blood vessels and enlarged veins. This is the state before the eruption appears, Scabs form from scratching and then comes the eruption. Papules, pimples, crusts, boils, vesicles, and eruptions ooze a watery moisture. When the eruption has gone on for some time the crusty formation and vesicles mingle; the skin becomes thickened and indurated, and new crops come out under the old crusts; rawness, itching, tingling, crawling, bleeding.

Eczema of the scalp and face; the crusts cover the scalp; the hair falls out; the oozing lifts up the crusts and exposes new vesicles; it looks like raw beef, and it tingles so that the child cannot keep its fingers off it; worse at night, worse from the warmth of the bed, worse from warm applications, anything that would keep the air away from it; ameliorated by cool air and worse from covering. This is the opposite of the general Psorinum state, which is aggravated from the open air. He has an aversion to the open air.

The eruption goes on, spreads, and the true skin becomes elevated, thickened, indurated, with an increased vascularity and redness. The oozing is offensive like carrion or decomposed meat; nauseating odor from the oozing fluid.

Offensiveness runs through Psorinum in such a characteristic way that it is worth while mentioning it here; foetid odors, foetid breath; discharges and oozings from the skin smelling like carrion; stool so offensive that the odor permeates the whole house, in diarrhoea, summer complaint, cholera infantum; perspiration foetid; leucorrhoea abominably offensive; eructations taste as if he had eaten hard boiled eggs and they had spoiled, and they smell so to others; stool, flatus, and eructations smell like spoiled eggs; offensive to sight and smell is the subject who needs this medicine.

The skin grows increasingly thick and bleeds, and the eruption spreads to other parts. Eruptions on the lips, on the genitals; very offensive; soreness and rawness about the anus; the vulva ulcerates and is very offensive; ulcers on the legs; on the tibiae; on the backs of the hands; on the dorsum of the foot; behind the ears and upon the ears; over the scalp; over the cheek bones; on the wings of the nose and on the nose and eyelids. Greasy skin. The eruption is accompanied by redness of the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth, lips and eyes. Eyelids thickened and turned out, like ectropion; granulation and induration of mucous membranes, so that they become like gristle; redness and ulceration. Ulceration of the cornea; lachrymation; turning out of the lids with loss of the eyelashes. He looks frightful with his red eyes, eruption on the face, red skin oozing a thick yellow discharge. In the early stages the oozing is a whitish thin or whitish thick moisture. In old eruptions ulceration takes place beneath the crusts and there is a thick, yellow, purulent discharge. Yellow green discharge from the eyes and nose. Horribly offensive discharge from the nose; gluey discharge from the nose; offensive like MERC, SIL., CALC. P., HEP. Accumulation of foetid pus in the eyes.

Coryza with thick, yellow discharge. Always taking cold. In the coryza the nose dries up part of the time and runs part of the time; he must use the handkerchief continually; must blow the nose all the time. In the early stages of the coryza he blows it all the time, but there is no discharge or relief. This state is so marked that some think of it as a continuous hay fever, which runs all the year and ripens up in the Fall. It is closely related to hay fever; stuffing up of the nose in the Fall; catarrhal state of the eyes and nose. Hay fever is one of the most difficult conditions to fit a remedy to. It belongs to a low constitution which must be built up before the hay fever will cease. It is an expression of psora which comes once a year, and the psoric miasm must be changed. In a few years most subjects can be changed, but not in one season, so do not be disappointed. In catarrhal states, hay fever often dates back to low fever improperly treated.

The Psorinum patient himself is one of debility. He wants to go home after a short walk. He is worse in the open air. He cannot breathe in the open air; cannot breathe while he is standing up; WANTSTOGOHOMEANDLIEDOWNSOTHATHECANBREATHE. Asthma or cardiac dyspnoea, when the patient wants to go home and lie down so that he can breathe. Usually this condition is relieved by sitting up and from the open air. Not so with Psorinum, he wants a warm place and to lie down and to be let alone.

Psorinum is slowed down in all of its functions; a state of paretic weakness. He does not rally after a fever; his digestion is slow; the stool is normal, yet it requires a great effort to expel it; the bladder is full of urine, yet it passes slowly and he feels that some remains; he can never finish stool or urination; he has to go back several times. Although the stool is soft and perfectly normal it cannot be expelled at one sitting.

A psoric patient comes down with typhoid; the typhoid has been arrested or has run its course and it is time for convalescence. The fever has subsided, but the patient has no appetite; he does not convalesce; he wants to lie down and does not desire to be moved; he is worse when sitting up, lies upon his back; he has troublesome breathing and lies with HISARMSABDUCTEDFROMHISSIDE, thrown across the bed; this relieves his breathing and allows the chest to operate properly; so tired and so weak; one dose of Psorinum will cause a reaction, stop his sweat, increase his appetite, cause better breathing.

The Psorinum complex of symptoms is one in which remedies cause improvement but a short time and then the symptoms change and another remedy must be selected. It is a state of feeble reaction.

The mental symptoms present some strong features. Sadness, hopelessness; he sees no light breaking through the clouds above his head; all is dark about him. He thinks his business is going to be a failure; that he is going to the poor house; that he has sinned away his day of grace. It is a fixed idea during the day and he dreams about it at night. Overwhelming sadness; dejection; he takes no joy in his family; feels that these things are not for him. His business is prosperous, yet he feels as if he were going to the poor house. No joy or realization of benefit. Extremely irritable, wants to be alone. Does not want to be washed. Full of anxiety, even of suicide. Despair of recovery if sick.

Though there is no eruption at night he is driven to despair by the continual itching. If he throws the covers off then he becomes chilly; if he covers up then there is itching. Sensitive to cold yet the skin is worse from heat. Tingling, itching, formication, crawling like ants running over the surface, as of insects in the skin.

Especially suited to broken down individuals, who have vertigo as soon as they go into the open air; become dizzy and want to go home and lie down; afraid they will lose their breath.

Old chronic periodic HEADACHESWITHHUNGER, and often the hunger lasts during the whole headache; MUSTGETUPATNIGHTTOGETSOMETHINGTOEAT. The headache is sometimes improved by eating. If he goes without a meal he has a headache. Violent rush of blood to the head, hot face, hair wet with the perspiration, hunger. Every one, two, or three weeks a recurrent headache. Every time the air blows on his head it slacks up the catarrh and a headache comes on. Either coryza or headache from catching cold. Headache is violent, throbbing, pecking as of little hammers, red face, hot head—congestive; at times sweat. Hungry headache in such as have a dry cough in winter. Dry, teasing, racking cough with no expectoration. If the cough ceases he has a periodic headache. So complaints alternate. Headache goes and cough appears or eruption in winter alternating with headache.

Teeth. Rigg's disease; the teeth become loose; the gums settle away, spongy, bleed easily, humid, blue, the teeth fall out. Ulcers about the tongue and mouth; ulcers as found in infancy; aphthae, thrush; ulcerated sore mouth, sore throat, chronic ulcers of throat. Chronic thickening and elongation of the uvula. Enlargement of tonsils, parotids and submaxillary glands; they become hard and tender to touch; swelling from taking cold. Glands of the neck sore.

Chronic abdominal affections with disturbances of stool. He will strain to pass a soft stool (NUXMOS., ALUMINA) Chronic diarrhoea; horribly offensive; frequent stool day and night (unlike SULPHUR, the remedy it most resembles). He must go several times to pass a normal stool.

Chronic vomiting; ulcer of the stomach, distension of stomach are commonly associated. Always sour belching, sour stomach. Vomiting of blood and bloody stools. This is not strange, because Psorinum has a tendency to haemorrhages, especially from the uterus. All sorts of menstrual disorders, especially a prolonged menstruation. When a woman has passed through an abortion and the placenta has come away, but every few days a little gush of fresh, bright red blood and clots, or going days and weeks with a little oozing of bright red blood; every time she gets on her feet there is a new start of the flow; no tendency to permanent recovery. Two remedies that fit this state are SULPHUR and Psorinum. A marked state of relaxation, sub-involution. The uterus does not go back to its normal size and there is this tendency to bleed; a state of inertia.

"Soft stool, passed with difficulty," do not forget this.S Obstinate constipation. Haemorrhage from the rectum. Cholera infantum; often in the early days the stool is horribly offensive, slimy, undigested; there is vomiting and prolonged weakness and the whole child has an offensive odor; child dirty; nose sunken in (ANT. T.), sunken countenance. Psorinum causes reaction and cures, or brings the child into such a condition that a simple remedy completes the cure. It is not the sourness of HEPAR; in spite of washing, the child smells so sour; like sour milk; the diaper, urine, and faeces and perspiration are sour. This is a strong general feature of HEPAR. The stool smells like spoiled eggs, so also the eructations and flatus. The offensiveness of the stool is horrible, but not so permeating as BAPT., which is thick and clay-like, while the Psorinum stool is watery, brown, gushing and may be bloody. Chronic diarrhoea, early morning, urgent. Hot flatus, burning the anus; smells of spoiled eggs, AM. and STAPH. Involuntary stool at night (CHINA has a black, profuse, watery stool at night and after meals). In Psorinum we find the haste of SULPHUR, the flatulence of OLEAN. and ALOE, and difficulty of expelling a soft stool like ALUMINA, CHINA and NUXMOSCH.

There is prostration in some Psorinum cases; prostration of the genitals. It is not such an unusual thing in the female to have aversion to sexual intercourse, but man is not often subject to the complaints that cause aversion to coition. Yet we have in man as well as in the woman actual aversion or a state of no enjoyment. He can perform the act and he has no difficulty in obtaining an erection, so it is not impotence, but there is no enjoyment. Impotence comes later. "Absence of erections; parts flabby, torpid." "Aversion to coition; impotence; want of emission during coitus." "Prostatic fluid discharged before urinating.

Old gleet, painless discharge; the "last drop;" relaxed and cold genitals; a drop of white or yellow pus after a well selected remedy. (SEPIA, SULPHUR, ALUMINA, Psorinum.) Psorinum is indicated above all others if there is an unusually offensive state of the genitals. THUJA, if the odor is of a nauseating, sweet character; warts exposed by rolling back the foreskin; sweet odor in spite of washing.

But mark the modalities. Aggravation in the open air, aggravation when sitting up, aggravation when sitting at the writing table; wants to lie down; wants to rest the chest and breathing apparatus by lying down. Asthmatic dyspnoea ameliorated by lying down, and worse the nearer the arms are brought to the body. Such symptoms are found in very few remedies and in none so marked as in Psorinum.

Febrile state. Intermittents, bilious fever, fever from a cold. The patient is so hot that the hand under the covers feels as though in a steam bath and the sensation of heat causes one to draw it back. It is not the dry heat of BELLADONNA, yet it is as intense. It is a steam. He is covered with a boiling sweat in fevers. Head and body hot and hot air or steam beneath the covers. (OPIUM has this, but it is in a violent congestion to the head, an apoplectic condition.) In intermittents he is taken on the street with difficult breathing. He wants to go home; he is weak and exhausted, crawls up stairs on the hands and knees. The chill is not marked, but the heat is intense and the sweat copious. He is almost in a stupor, befogged, bewildered, cannot answer questions; face red, puffed, mottled. "Sweat profuse, cold, clammy from least exertion." This is another form which comes on in the weak, broken down state. After typhoids, he sweats if he turns in bed, after the least exertion, and the sweat is cold. Profuse night sweats. Night sweats of phthisis; when there is that tremendous heat under the covers, a copious hot sweat; mental state as if dazed.

Marasmus; shrivelling of the skin; dirty skin; cannot wash it clean. Offensive discharge from the bowels; great emaciation; increased growth of hair on the face; a fuzz (NATR. M., Psor., SULPH., CALC.) ; horribly offensive in spite of washing; ravenous appetite yet grows thin. Foetid odors would lead one to think of Psorinum.